


The Silence of the Apocalypse

by SatuD2



Series: Drabble Ball Z [87]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: 3rd pov (2nd chapter), Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Epistolary, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Prompt Fill, Whump, revival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2021-02-18 11:11:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21510109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SatuD2/pseuds/SatuD2
Summary: Everything’s gone. Everyone’s gone. It’s like the whole world has gone silent. I’d never realised how loud everyone’s minds were, even from all the way up here in the Northern Wastes. Now it’s totally silent. For the first time it’s just me in my own head.
Relationships: Chiaotzu & Tenshinhan (Dragon Ball)
Series: Drabble Ball Z [87]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1549627
Comments: 8
Kudos: 7





	1. After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> January 21st: After - Super Saturday word count - - pay an escalation cost for each add-on.  
> • 400 words - Congratulations, your characters have survived an apocalypse! Now what?   
> • +200 words - Journal/diary/epistolary format.  
> • +200 words - Your setting for today. (http://i.imgur.com/hexD0da.jpg)  
> • +200 words - Give them a Bolivian Army ending

Dear Diary,

Everything’s gone. Every _one_ ’s gone. It’s like the whole world has gone silent. I’d never realised how loud everyone’s minds were, even from all the way up here in the Northern Wastes. Now it’s totally silent. For the first time it’s just me in my own head.

Well. Me and Tien. 

He’s gone out. I don’t know where. He said he needed to get some supplies. He didn’t specify what exactly. He probably has to scrounge for food. Or find some firewood. Or to bury the bodies of our friends.

They must be dead. They’re silent too. Goku’s exuberance, Vegeta’s pride, Krillin’s humour, Piccolo’s confidence, Gohan’s excitement, Yamcha’s cockiness. Even Dende’s quiet kindness. It’s all gone. I don’t

I can’t 

* * *

Dear Diary,

Sorry I broke off so sharply last time. It all got a bit much for me. I’m sure you understand.

Tien is still out. I think he must be burying our friends. We’ve been scattered all over the world for so long. It’ll take him time to find everyone and make sure they’re respectful. Hopefully the animals haven’t

Anyway. It’s been maybe three months since the ‘event’. I guess that’s what we need to call it. I don’t know the details. The sky went black and then red. Everyone’s minds called out and then fell silent. It was the worst thing. Like. It hurt. It hurt so, so much. I can’t find the 

Oh Tien’s back. I’ll let you know what he found.

* * *

Dear Diary,

Dende’s alive! Tien found Dende! He bought him back here and he’s safe with us now! I’m so excited. I was so happy to see him I couldn’t stop flying around for hours. Tien isn’t excited. He’s been very still and solemn and quiet. He doesn’t talk a lot anymore. It’s kind of scary. But I suppose I can understand why. It’s been a hard few months.

Dende is very quiet too. He’s lost in his grief I think. He told us that Piccolo left to save Gohan. But he never came back. Dende has been hiding out on the Lookout ever since, using his Kami powers to see what is happening on the surface. We asked, but he won’t tell us. Or can’t. He just keeps repeating the words “They’re dead, they’re all dead” over and over again until I had to take him to bed. Tien couldn’t. He was

Tien’s gone out again. I wish he would talk to me. I wish he’d let me come with him. I could help. I could take it.

I’d be okay. 

* * *

Dear Diary,

I don’t know why I bother writing to you.

No one’s listening. No one cares. 

* * *

Dear Diary,

Please forgive me for being so rude last time. I was just scared, I guess.

Tien came back. I sat him down and had strong words with him. It’s the first time we’ve really fought in a long time. What better time than the end of the world? He’s agreed that he’ll tell me what he’s been seeing out there. But not today. Hopefully tomorrow. He needs to sleep first, ruminate on it. Find the words. Dende said he’ll try to help. He’s still grieving, even more than Tien and I are. Everyone on earth is gone. He loved them all. They were all his people. And he watched them die.

Hopefully they can tell me after some sleep.

* * *

Dear Diary,

Apparently it’s like a zombie thing? Or a parasite? People have had the life crushed from them and now they’re coming back. They’re walking around. Tien has been finding our friends and…and killing them. Again. He tried talking to them at first. Tried to bring them back here, to safety. But they tried to kill him. They tried to bite him. He had to kill them, he said. They would have killed him if he hadn’t, he said.

But he couldn’t meet my eyes.

Dende backed him up on it though. So I suppose I can believe it.

It hurts. Thinking about our friends.

I had to go outside. I watched the sunset from the roof of the cabin. The clouds were low. The whole sky lit up red, like fire. Or blood. The mountains around our cabin looked like knives. Tien came and sat beside me. I couldn’t say anything. He put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me into his lap and held me while I cried. I’d needed to cry. I’ve been trying so hard to be strong. I’d forgotten to decompress.

Tien always knows. What to say. What to do. How to help. He’s a really good friend. 

* * *

Dear Diary,

Tien has gone out again. He’s going to try to find Vegeta and Bulma now. Even though he promised I could come out next time I’ve decided it’s not a good idea. I’m going to stay here to take care of Dende. He’s become flat (I guess?) since Tien admitted to killing the others. Killing Piccolo. He won’t get out of bed. He won’t drink anything. I need to pull him out of bed and force him to drink.

I’m really worried about him. I don’t know how much longer he’s going to last if I’m the only one here to keep him alive. 

He doesn’t want to live. That’s the problem. How can I fix that? Even when all of the Namekians were killed by Frieza and Vegeta, he wanted to live. How am I supposed to bring his heart back? His soul? I’m only me. I don’t have that power.

* * *

Dear Diary, 

They’re around us. All around us. People. Demons. I don’t know how they found us. They’ve surrounded our cabin. Tien never came home. Dende is still too shocked and apathetic to help. He’s been lying in bed all day. It’s up to me. I’m going to get rid of them all.

I’ll be back when I can.

In the meantime, if you find this... 

I love you, Tien. You’re my best friend, always.


	2. Quest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> January 28th: Quest - Super Saturday word count - - pay an escalation cost for each add on.  
> • 400 words - An epic adventure awaits! Your characters are looking for the MacGuffin that will save the world.  
> • +200 words - The mood is: desperate, resolute, and angry.  
> • +200 words - The MacGuffin is cursed in some amusing way.  
> • +200 words - This (http://i.imgur.com/HWRY0Rx.jpg) is your setting for today.

The sun was directly in his eyes. Red and orange, making the edge of the horizon glow like a furnace. Tien shielded his eyes, looked around at the vibrant green trees that peppered the grassy plain. It was around here somewhere. He just knew it.

One hand lifted the dragon radar and pressed the button, honing in on the one remaining dragon ball. The other six were tucked into his belt. His other hand lifted and carefully readjusted the purple cloth that was tied around his chest, pulled so tight he could barely breath.

The plain below him was deserted. There was no sign of the zombified human race. It was totally silent. The ball was close now. The radar in his hand was letting out small beeps with increasing frequency, so he started to drop his altitude.

A small hand snaked over his shoulder, gripped at his shirt. He grabbed that hand reflexively, cursing the immediate gut reaction of hope that accompanied the movement. The hand was green. Not white. It wasn’t Chiaotzu. Chiaotzu was dead. He had to remember that. Had to find the dragon balls. Had to fix this terrible mistake.

He could still remember returning to the cabin. He’d been so hopeful, so happy. The dragon radar and three dragon balls in his hands. A plan, a hope. It had burned in him so bright after the emptiness of previous excursions, the pain of finding their friends dead and vicious, of trying to reason with them, of killing them again. This had been a light in the darkness of his despair. A chance of fixing everything.

Chiaotzu had been gone. Blood had stained the snow outside. His brother’s body had been hidden near the mountain, bitten and cold. Tien’s heart had broken. Chiaotzu had been so alone and so afraid throughout the entire experience. They had only just sat down and talked it through. Come back to themselves almost. The grief had been unbearable.

It had been worse when he’d found Chiaotzu’s diary. Read the entries in their bitter hopelessness. The closing line. A line that had echoed in his mind, calling back to previous separations, and he had lost himself for a while.

After a long period of blackness where his mind had stopped working, he had looked for the Guardian of Earth. Dende had been curled up in bed. His skin had been pale green and his eyes sunken, his lips dry and cracked to the point of bleeding. Tien had gotten Dende up, forced the young Namekian to drink. The boy was still almost catatonic in his own grief, his own pain, so Tien couldn’t leave him behind. Hence the harness holding him to Tien’s back. 

“Tien…thank you…”

“It’s okay, Dende.” Tien didn’t even think as he responded. Dende had been saying that on and off during their search. Mostly after sleeping. He’d wake and be sort of okay for a moment, before slipping back into his daze. It wasn’t healthy. It was downright disturbing.

He landed in a clearing. Gently, keeping one hand linked with Dende’s, he loosened the harness and lowered the teenager to the ground. Dende wouldn’t let go of his hand until Tien crouched in front of him, murmured soothing words, carefully extricated his hands. He wished Chiaotzu was here. The telepath was so much better at soothing and comforting than Tien was.

Dende curled into a small ball, gripping his ankles and burying his face into his knees. He wasn’t going to move. Good. He would stay safe.

Tien started searching the small clearing. Eventually he found the dragon ball hidden in a collection of rocks. He put all seven together, watching for a moment as they glowed and pulsated a powerful orange. Dende was alive. The dragon would live. But it was closely connected to its creator. What if Dende’s grief and despair also affected the dragon?

He shook his head. Braced his mind. Pulled a handful of capsules from his pockets and held them gingerly in his hands. So light, yet such a heavy weight on his heart. He threw the capsules. Smoke filled the clearing. As it cleared a collection of glass coffins surrounded him and Dende. The twisted vicious faces of their dead friends were visible through the glass and Dende covered his eyes and let out a low despairing moan.

Tien raised his voice, called the incantation to summon the dragon. There was a prolonged moment of silence where the balls glowed and Tien’s body froze in fear. Then dark clouds rolled in. A deep roar shook the trees as the dragon emerged.

He made his two wishes. First to undo this terrible plague that had wiped out humanity. And second to bring back those who had been killed again after the plague had struck.

The lids of the coffins hissed up. Within his friends began to stir. He couldn’t wait. He couldn’t just stand there, dumb, as he had the first time.

As Piccolo sat up and Dende lunged for him, sobbing. As Krillin and 18 stirred and their hands found and linked with each other. As Trunks and Vegeta were swept into Bulma’s arms and Goten leapt into the embrace of Chichi and Goku. As Gohan shyly nudged his way beneath Piccolo’s arm and tightly embraced Dende. Tien ran to Chiaotzu’s coffin and lifted the small body into his arms. He watched, desperate and oddly afraid as the vicious bite marks slowly knitted together and healed into smooth new skin.

He held his breath and felt tears of relief burn in his eyes. Chiaotzu shifted, took a slow shuddering breath. His eyes opened and a weak smile tugged at his mouth.

“T-Tien?”

“Chiaotzu…” Tien hugged his brother close to his chest, sobbing like a small child, unable to stop the smile that spread through his tears as Chiaotzu’s hands lifted and twisted into his shirt. “I love you, little brother. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to protect you.”

“Love you…Tien…”


End file.
